Alisa Kleybanova

The WTA caught up with Alisa Kleybanova in Australia and they interview her to get to know a little more about this Russian rising tennis player who upset Ana Ivanovic and made it to the 4th round of the Australian Open... How did you get into tennis? AK: I was four and a half and I got into tennis with my parents. They'd play for fun on weekends with their friends and as a little kid I was hanging around and playing with the balls. But from the beginning it wasn't like they wanted me to be a professional; it was just one of ... Read Full Story

Q. What's the feeling after that win? ALISA KLEYBANOVA: It's just great to play one of the matches like this. It was definitely the best match in my career so far. I'm so happy that I pulled through, because it was not just a win, but I really felt that I played almost my best tennis today. It was so exciting to be out there. Just the moments that we train every day, we work hard and, you know, we live our life to be there and to play on this court, and for all those people that came to watch. Just the feelings ... Read Full Story

Asian veterans Ai Sugiyama and Tamarine Tanasugarn enjoyed contrasting fortunes at the French Open on Monday, with Thai star Tamarine winning but Sugiyama crashing out. Tamarine, 32, dismayed the French fans by seeing off home favourite Camille Pin 6-3, 5-7, 7-5 in a 2hr 55min first-round tie, but 33-year-old Japanese Sugiyama went down 6-3, 6-2 to another Frenchwoman, Aravane Rezai. Tamarine opened up a 4-1 first-set lead against 27-year-old Pin before being pegged back to 4-3, but a loose backhand into the net from Pin allowed the Thai a decisive break and she served out to take the opening set. Pin fought back from ... Read Full Story

Ana Ivanovic was upset at the third round of the Australian Open after losing to Alisa Kleybanova 7-5 6-7 6-2. Alisa clawed her way back into the match in the first set, winning four games in succession to clinch the lead after finding herself 5-3 down. The Russian then won the first three games in the next and had a chance to wrap up the match when serving at 5-4 in the second set, but the Serbian broke back for a fourth time and took it to a tie-break. Kleybanova again had the edge courtesy of an early mini-break but the fist-pumping Ivanovic clung ... Read Full Story

Ana Ivanovic is out of the Australian Open, she fell in three sets to Alisa Kleybanova . This is an upset on paper, but with Ivanovic 's form of late it is really not that surprising. It appears she has been receiving serving lessons from Elena Dementieva over the past couple of months, and her ground game hasn't been very consistent at all. Alisa Kleybanova, on the other hand, is a 19 year old Russian, currently ranked 31 in the world. She is the former number 1 junior in the world, and a very big girl at 5'11 and 160 lbs. Look for Kleybanova ... Read Full Story